Mischief Managed
by littlewordshaker
Summary: The celebrated squad bonds over hangovers and heartbreak, spells and misspellings. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs support each other through Sirius's struggle with anorexia, Remus's furry little problem, James's countless conquests, and Peter's insecurity. pairings: sirius/remus and lily/james. If you are reading and enjoying this story pretty please be sure to favorite/review
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

Sirius Black flicked his wand back and forth. At the low end of adolescence, he spoke in shades of static. Someone had replaced his heart with a muggle's radio dial, twisting toward a song he'd never heard, but nothing was close enough for clarity.

"Oy, Padfoot, what's got you in such a mood?" James lobbed one of the three snitches he stole from the quidditch shed at Sirius's head. Sirius didn't bother to duck.

"I'm not in a mood you bloody wanker, I'm just trying to summon some of Remus's disgusting resolve so I can study for this history of magic test."

"Nowhere in the history of any kind of magic have you ever studied for a test." James said, shining his glasses on his shirt.

"People can change. Just look at Grunge the Gritty in the fifth goblin rebellion." Remus didn't look up from his notebook.

"For Merlin's sake Mr. Goody Two Paws, Pads and I here need to get you laid." James squinted, spat on his glasses.

Remus snatched them, tapped his wand on the top of each lens. "I don't suppose you'll start studying now that you can see. "

"Alright, alright moony, Sirius and I will just have to enjoy the prime of our youth in the common room without you."

"Actually I'm bloody tired. I think I'm just going to sleep through the next-I don't know, three tests?" Sirius pulled the covers up past his collar. James shrugged, stomped down the dorm stairs. Peter was probably in the common room and would be more than willing to write twelve inches on the first section of the secrecy statute for a few chocolate frogs.

Sirius didn't hear Remus leave, but he rolled over hours later, used light cleaving his eyelids. Someone had left him a glass of water on the bedside table. He opened the curtains on his four poster, James would never let him hear the end of checking himself out, but he had to make sure he was more than bones and questions, that no one else would leave him in search of something more solid.

He couldn't talk about this with his friends. Remus would worry, James would scoff, and Peter would gape.

He turned the shower on as hot as it would go, slid like a sluice to the slick bottom. His hipbones arose to erode and he wanted to drown himself so still.

He waited a minute to make sure his friends had gone down to dinner, cast a quick silencing charm around the bathroom and searched his throat for the hollow that got sore after shouting. It was like spitting up sunburn. He rinsed his mouth with the flask of fire whisky James had hidden in the cabinet, looked both ways before exiting the bathroom. James wouldn't bother to bring him back anything from dinner; for all he knew Sirius was still hung over from the wizard chess drinking game last night.

James never asked anything he didn't already know the answer too. It would be fine.

He went back to the dorm, pressed his forehead against the window pane. He was named after a star, and he stood in awe at the endless clash of space dust and dark matter. He didn't close his eyes to make a wish.

He'd seen more eclipses than he cared to remember.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Morning sliced across the castle, snipped his eye sockets. He slept with scissors in his skull, collected the clippings of his nightmares in strips.

He felt a weight on the end of his bed, flung a pillow towards it.

"It's not very nice to hurl pillows at strangers. Especially when you wake up in bed with them. "

"Nice meeting you, arsehole. Now get off my bed."

James snorted. "But who told you this was your bed? I haven't seen the likes of you here in a long while!"

"James, you bloody prat, you're sitting on my foot." Sirius kicked at James, but he didn't budge. "And I've been up here all weekend. It was hard to fend off mother Remus for more than five minutes at a time after we pissed in his good pewter cauldron last weekend."

"Remus can't stay mad at you for long. You're just the _moon_ of his life , ya know?"

Sirius smacked James in the face with his other pillow. "Sod off. Remus only likes me best because I don't pull crazy stunts like, I don't know, running through the entire castle in my underwear?"

"That was your idea, and one of the best ones you've had since you convinced me to enchant all of Peter's ties to come undone whenever he said 'um"".

"Well I'm clearly the brains behind the operation. Some people find criminal masterminds admirable."

James ran his fingers through his hair, tugging at the ends. "Why don't we go get some breakfast before the Slytherins get all the bacon-and before you disappear into the bathroom for twenty minutes again like a bloody muggle fashion model." Sirius winced, squeezed his eyes shut, etched an elegy to his skeletal system in the faded images, slumped back into half-sleep.

He didn't need the food.

"Shouldn't we wait for Remus and Peter?" He said, rubbing his eyes. The crease in the middle of James's forehead deepened, like Sirius had slapped him and he hadn't had a chance to refocus his vision. "C'mon Sirius, we need some Pads and Prongs time to plan out operation double potions number thirty-two."

"Are you asking me on bloody date?" Sirius pulled the covers over his face. James shoved him. Sirius growled, yanked the curtains to his bed open, threw a tie over his shoulders. He was still wearing his jumper and slacks from yesterday.

"Alright Prong, this idea of yours better be good." James grabbed him by the elbow, pulling him a half-pace behind at they rushed down the six sets of stairs. Sirius wriggled loose.

He always walked a little slower than James. Maybe because he was smaller. He could have caught up, but he kept trailing behind.

All he'd ever wanted to do was follow.


	3. Chapter 3

James ran his tongue over the tines of his fork, tasting for the last traces of all the bacon he'd eaten. Sirius rubbed his temples. His limbs felt like they'd been borrowed from another body. His heart wobbled. The great hall was bright and grey as birth, clouds squirming against the atmosphere's embrace.

"Merlin on a used broom, quit picking at your food." James shoved the pitcher of pumpkin juice at Sirius. He bit his lip, stirred a cube of sugar into his coffee.

"James Potter!" Sirius glanced up from his plate. Lily Evans, hair in a knot at the nape of her neck, knuckles white around her wand, cuffed James close to the collar. "No yelling in the dining hall. And you should be nice to your friend when he's ill."

James pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose. "He's not ill, Evans. Just bit a bit hung- over." Lily stomped over to Sirius, smoothed some of the hair off his forehead to feel it with her fingertips. He flinched, scooted closer to James. "I think he's ill, but you're just sick, Potter. Sick and twisted."

James shrugged. "If that's what you're into these days..."

"Bugger off."

"Only if you join me. My dorm this evening?" Lily snatched a cup from the center of the table and poured herself some coffee.

"Never in your vulgar and most disgusting dreams, Potter." Sirius squirmed in his seat. If Evans told any professors she thought there was something wrong with him, it wouldn't be long before his friends found out. She was, after all, the only Gryffindor prefect ever since Andrew McHugh got trampled by an irate unicorn in care and magical creatures.

He felt a portkey in this throat; his stomach reached out to it, dissaparated. He busied himself folding his napkin into triangles, felt a palm soft as September on his shoulder.

"Sirius, if you'd like I'll escort you down to the hospital wing." Lily said.

"Merlin, Evans, it's almost as if you fancy the bloke." Lily smirked. "He does have beautiful cheekbones." Sirius squinted at the enchanted ceiling and James scoffed.

"I can take care of my own bloody mate Evans." James clapped Sirius across the clavicle. "Remember that time your sodding appendix ruptured and I carried you all the way to the hospital wing by myself.? James asked Sirius. Lily snorted. "All hail the heroic Potter, who carried his skinny little mate all of half a kilometer." Sirius finagled his tie.

"There were stairs on that route, Evans. Lots of stairs." Lily rolled her eyes, snatched a strip of bacon from James's plate before he could protest, swished back to her three giggling friends at the other end of the Gryffindor table. James sighed and turned to Sirius.

"What are you looking at me like that for?" Sirius pushed his plate away.

"Evans is right, you look like pixie shit. If you're feeling sick we can plan the prank this afternoon."

"I have no idea what you two are on about. I was thinking we put a quick spectrum charm on Snape's shampoo. Minimal effort, maximum result."

"How the bloody hell would we get into his dorm to do that?" James groped around his pockets for a quill.

Sirius twirled his wand between his fingers, smirking. "Evans."


	4. Chapter 4

AN: If you are reading my story, please drop me a fave or review :D :D :D! encouragement is nice. Alas, here is chapter four.

Chapter Four

Sirius winced at the sound of his shoes, sharp enough to shatter the insolent stairs, mumbled fizzing whizbees without greeting the fat lady, and collapsed across his open four-poster. Someone had replaced his skull with a coffee filter, discarded it over his optic nerve ending. James had headed to the library to plot plays for next month's big match against Ravenclaw, but Sirius knew the longest James ever lasted in the library was seven minutes and thirteen seconds-he and Remus timed it twice when James bet them five galleons that he could win Madam Pince over. Sirius and Remus had spent their winnings on invisible newts to put under Peter's pillow.

"Psst, Sirius. Sirius?" Hands grabbed at him, rolled him over. He groaned. Of course Remus would be up by now. Prefect duty waits for no man. "Hhhhhhhhh?" Sirius asked.

"James said you were too distracted by Evans to bother with breakfast, so I brought you an apple."

Sirius pressed his palms into his eye sockets, looking for an off-switch. An electric litany of white noise sizzled his cerebellum. He snorted. "James is the one who got distracted by Evans. I, on the other hand, am a civilized human being that doesn't gawk at girls like they're the quidditch cup."

Remus sighed. "Padfoot, I didn't want to have to spell it out to you like this, but we're worried about you."

Sirius struggled up on his elbows, relishing the zing of pain the movement shot up to his shoulders. "And why in Merlin's bloody England is that, Moony?"

"Come on Sirius. You probably weigh less now than when you were a third year. None of us are blind-"

"Prongs-"

"Let me finish. None of us are blind, not even James, and we can tell when something bothering you. Even bloody Regulus has been asking about you! Now you either spill before the others get back, or James and I go meet with Dumbledore-_again." _

Sirius ghosted up, fists clenched. "What do you mean, _again_, Remus?" Remus flinched.

"Sirius, it doesn't have to go like this. We only want to help you."

"How the bloody hell are you helping me by going to Dumbledore? He'll owl my sodding parents and Godric only knows what'll happen then-" Remus reached out to steady him, but Sirius flicked his hand off, sank back into bed.

"Sirius, you've always talked to me. Please, tell me what's wrong." Remus sat beside him, pulled Sirius's shoulders closer to his own.

"Let it go, Remus." He said, his teeth a concert crowd, crammed in, grinding together. Remus watched the global white of Sirius's knuckles, the calluses like crumbling pansies. These were the hands that triple-knotted Peter's training to each other on the last day of term, that left the grand piano's teeth chattering and onlookers chilled, that scribbled sloppy notes in the margins of his potions book the last few days before full moon. Sirius folded his fingers into fists, inched away.

"You're scaring me." Remus said, wrapping his arms around himself.

"_I'm _scaring _you? _Which one of us is the bloody wolf?"

"This is serious..."

"I'M THE ONLY SIRIUS AROUND HERE." Sirius lobbed a pillow at Remus.

"Knock it off! You're hiding something and I don't bloody like it."

Sirius wound a strand of inky hair around his index finger, loped over to the lavatory. "Well, as much as I enjoy our cuddle time, Mr. Lupin, unless you want to watch me take a piss, I'll be going now. G'day." Sirius bowed.

Sirius finagled with the faucet, repeating the steps like a secret handshake; right twist, left twist, shake, but a fist fell on the door before he finished turning the water on.

"Rem, I bloody told you I need a piss." There were scissors in his stomach.

"And I bloody told you I know something's wrong. I was waiting for you to come out with it but Evans heard you being sick after dinner every day last week. Open the sodding door or I give you detention."

"Evans is just trying to jerk our chains because she thinks we're a lot of prats! Leave me the bloody hell alone Remus." His palms slipped off the sink, slick with sweat. The door to the dormitory jostled in its jamb. _Shit. _ He'd left his wand on the nightstand. He and James were ahead of their year on silent spells, but Sirius didn't know if he could cast a silencing charm under pressure. He strained to hear James over the tap.

"Leave him alone, Remus. Sirius isn't messed up like that!" Sirius cleared his throat to test the spell, filled his throat with three fingers. The reflection of his face he flushed down the toilet was distorted, but he looked smaller here than in the mirror.

Sirius rested his forehead on the porcelain rim, listing alone for a moment amongst towels and tile grout.


	5. Chapter 5

Author's Note: Sorry for the delay! I just graduated so should have a little more love in me for this story. Pretty pretty please favorite and comment if you're enjoying the story!

James and Remus argued in cluttered whispers as Sirius fumbled with the brass lock on the bathroom door. James caught the crook of his arm, cuffed him close to the collar. Sirius's heart smeared and he shuddered, muscles straining.

"Sod off, James, I'm not up for kicking your arse today."

James twirled his wand between two fingers. "Pads, since when have you ever kicked my arse? Remus is the only bloke you can lick." Remus traced triangles on the stone floor with his toes.

"Well I guess that's just the King James Version." Sirius's stomach swiveled. A cold front was coming to his throat.

"Knock it off. Quidditch Royalty or not, you're both insufferable." Remus said.

Sirius slung an arm around Remus's shoulders, hummed the school song in his ear.

"You know, I don't think Godric Gryffindor would find this particular rendition very respectful." Remus said.

James finagled with his tie. "Cmon Moony, you're not serious."

"James is right. I am!"

"You are both pun-loving fucks that I refuse to associate with anymore at this moment in time."

"Pretentious twat!" Sirius said.

"PUN LOVING FUCK."

James pushed his glasses further up his nose. "_Howl _ ever we will make it up to you?"

Remus blew his bangs away from his forehead.

"We'd even give you the moon." Sirius said.

"Let's just go to lunch." Remus scuttled toward the common room.

"Is he hungry like the wolf?"

Remus sighed, eyes red and swirling as sneakoscopes. "Sirius, you coming?" Remus grabbed his wrist, forefinger and thumb wrapping all the way around. Sirius shook his head.

"I'm not hungry yet."


End file.
